These guidelines for teaching German in the Leaving Certiflcate programme provide:
- a rationale for the syllabus content and structure (Chapter 1)
- an overview of current principles and good practice in modern language teaching (Chapters 2 and 3)
- suggestions for teaching the syllabus content with pupils of varying abilities (Chapter 4)
- a range of examples for classroom activities within the context of an integrated approach (Chapters 5 and 6)
- suggestions for using literary texts (Chapter 7)
- assessment criteria and descriptions of expected performance at different grades. (Chapter 8)
The examples given are offered as a suggested compendium of ideas for teachers and pupils to choose from. The guidelines should be viewed as an additional resource and not as a strait-jacket i.e. teachers are free to pick and choose from those suggestions which they feel will be useful to them. It is not recommended that the three components of the syllabus be taught separately but rather that workplans be based on linking together all three areas of content. Chapters 5 and 6 are provided by way of suggestion as to how a programme of work involving an integrated approach to (a) the syllabus content and (b) a progression in the development of the learners' skills could be planned. Where such a detailed scheme is not possible or not considered desirable there will still be a need to plan a programme of work that is systematic, sequential and coherent and the suggestions offered in these guidelines are aimed at facilitating that process.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment would like to express its thanks to Authentik Language Learning Resources Ltd. for permission to reproduce examples of exercises used in Authentik, to Cambridge University Press, The Centre for Information on Language Teaching and the various other sources o f materials used and acknowledged in these guidelines.
Many of the suggested activities belong to a chain ofexercises and it is not suggested that they be used in isolation.